Governance without Democracy: Is It Possible?

China, at the moment, is blessed with competent leaders. But before that they had Mao. There is nothing to prevent another Mao in the future without some form of democratic accountability.

This is Frank Fukuyama talking about democratic governance and its future in the context of the modernization debate.  He makes a very important point, which underscores the key benefit of having institutions – that they provide for structure that is not dependent on individual leaders.

Oftentimes, in supporting authoritarian governance models, some suggest that a benevolent dictator may push through much needed reforms for the benefit of the country, unconstrained by processes, checks and balances, debates, and other institutional barriers (see Singapore: economy).  But then they forget, that a non-benevolent dictator can use the same mechanisms to do the opposite (see Zimbabwe: economy). 

History of the world clearly shows that the number of benevolent dictators pales in comparison with the ones that wreak havoc on economies and societies.  In other words, there are a lot more Zimbabwes than Singapores. Point being is that institutions – such as constitutions – play a huge role in countries’ development path in constraining the power of individuals and instead relegating it to processes (what we call governance).

Another question that you may ask as you are thinking through this point is whether you can simply focus on building good governance.  Fukuyama has an answer for this as well:

You simply can’t get good governance without democratic accountability. It is a risky illusion to believe otherwise.

Published Date: October 22, 2009